All of the lights in the house were turned off, but the room in which the five men were seated around a circular table was quite alight with a large abundance of candles that they found in Billy’s emergency stash. The room was fragrant with the smell of wildflowers, which made Dom’s hay fever act up, so he was not exactly a happy camper.

“This is bloody ridiculous,” Dom muttered, blowing his nose and ignoring the hand Elijah was proffering as everyone was linking themselves up round the table.

“Cheer up, for God’s sake,” Orlando admonished. “Look on the bright side.”

“Easy for you to say, you poncy elf, you’re not going to die! You didn’t watch the film! And, also, you try being cheery when you’ve got five days left to live and blasted hay fever. AND there’s a ghost lurking about wanting to kill you!”

“You have no proof the ghost wants to kill you,” Elijah replied seriously.

“Or that there IS a ghost,” Billy stated cheerfully.

Dom took Elijah’s hand almost out of spite and said, “FINE, then. You ask it if it wants to kill me!”

“I’m sure it doesn’t want to injure me,” Orlando said sweetly. “As I am most loved.” Viggo kicked him under the table and Orlando scowled at him, but didn’t say anything.

“Did anyone ever tell you how very unhelpful you are?” Viggo asked, a falsely sweet smile on his lips.

“Yes, actually, I was told that very often as a wee child.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Dom deadpanned, blowing his nose on another tissue and scowling over the top of it at Orlando.

Orlando scowled back and opened his mouth to speak before Billy crushed his foot under his; Orlando let out a screech and jumped from the table.

“Can we PLEASE get ON with IT!?” Billy asked, glaring around at them all.

“Yes,” Elijah meeped. “Let’s hurry up and get this over with. I’ve only got five days to live you know.”

“Shut up,” Dom muttered, narrowing his eyes at him.

While the complete company scowled at one another, they linked hands and closed their eyes as told to do so by Billy, the ring leader. Once he had done a few calming “mmmmhmmmmms” like you might in yoga, he began in a deep bass voice, “If there are any spirits here, can they please come to the table? We’d like to have a word.”

“I don’t think that’s how séances go regularly,” Elijah commented, his eyes still closed.

“Don’t be cheeky,” Billy warned. “I can have a séance any damned way I want. We’re in MY haunted house, you know.”

Dom whimpered, “Can we not do this, please? I want to go to bed with my stuffed teddy bear and forget this day even happened.”

A sound in the next room made them all jump, open their eyes, and turn towards the open doorway. Though the other room was empty by the look of it, there was an unmistakable clanking going on, as if someone with chains about their ankles was walking towards them.

“I don’t like this!” Dom screamed, clutching Elijah’s hand for dear life.

“OW! DAMMIT, DOM!” Elijah pulled his hand away, looking hurt.

“Don’t break the circle, Elijah!” Billy stated, but it was too late. The others all let go of each others hands and suddenly the lights in the room turned back on and the candles extinguished.

“Well,” Orlando said, smiling happy, “That was fun.”

Dom stood up angrily, pushing his chair over to the ground, “It bloody well was NOT fun, Bloom!” He blew his nose and then sighed heavily, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go camp out in Viggo’s car, for his back seat has the most room. Where did you put my suitcase, Boyd, I want my teddy bear. Where the bloody hell is Harry?”

“Harry who?” Elijah asked, standing up as well and massaging his swollen fingers from where Dom had, apparently, broken them.

“My teddy bear!” Dom screeched, shaking his head. “Don’t you know me at all?”

Elijah shrugged, “No.”

Dom let out another outburst of anger and then stomped from the room.

“We should probably tell him the truth,” Viggo commented in a hushed voice as they heard Dom rummaging through rooms upstairs, in search of his bag.

“Why?” Orlando asked, grinning. “This is fun.”

Elijah shook his head, “Not for him, he’s really scared.”

“So?”

“ORLANDO.” All three of them gave Orlando a look, and headed from the room.

“DOM!” Billy cried out, half laughing. “We were only joking, Dom! It was just a joke! This place isn’t haunted, except by Orlando, and that video was a fake!”

“DOMMMMMMMMMMM!” Elijah screamed, starting up the stairs. “Come on, Dom, don’t be mad. Well, you can be mad, but only at Orlando. It was HIS idea.”

“We tried to stop him!” Viggo called, starting up the stairs behind Elijah; Billy began ascending as well, while Orlando stood at the bottom of the staircase, looking bored. “You know how he doesn’t listen!”

“Dom, come on. Where are you?” Elijah turned a corner into the first bedroom and let out a earsplitting screech that resulted in Viggo and Billy tumbling over one another into the hallway. Orlando bounded up the stairs wondering what all the commotion was about.

“What the bloody---?” Orlando screeched and fell against the doorframe to the room Elijah was standing, horrorstricken in. “What’s that?”

“This place really is haunted!” Elijah whispered, stepping back and bumping into Orlando, crushing his toes; Orlando merely let out a small cry in response.

In the middle of the room, with moonlight shining in on it, was a rather large white figure hovering a few inches from the ground, its black eyes (or what the boys thought were eyes) were staring directly at them.

Viggo and Billy collected themselves and untangled and convened in the doorway, their mouths dropped open. Orlando and Elijah cowered beside them; Elijah looked as if he’d discovered a lost tomb of some old Egyptian ruler by the way he was gazing at the ghost, it was as if he’d liked to have asked it what sort of ectoplasm it emitted.

“I wonder if it ate Dom?” Billy questioned.

Elijah chuckled, “Dear, sweet Billy. Ghosts don’t eat humans, they only…um…scare them, I guess.”

“How do you know; are you a ghost buster?” Orlando asked, clearly agitated.

“I could be,” Elijah sniffed.

“Then get rid of it!” Orlando hissed, his voice really high and his face contorted in what seemed to be fright.

“You can’t ‘get rid of it’ just by saying ‘Shoo you ghost.’” Elijah snorted, “You know nothing about this, do you?”

“Obviously not,” Orlando retorted, “And why would I?”

“If you guys spent less time arguing and more time ghost busting, you wouldn’t have this trouble,” came Dom’s voice from somewhere across the room.

“DOM!?” Orlando gasped. “The ghost DID eat him! AHHHHHHH!” Orlando would have run from the room had Viggo and Billy not been blocking his way.

“It’s quite easy to make fun of someone when they’re scared, isn’t it, Orli? Quite another when YOU yourself are scared.”

“Why is he being all deep?” Orlando asked Elijah, who shrugged.

Soon enough the white sheet Dom had been wearing was pulled off and he clapped to return lights to the room. “You arses,” Dom laughed, “You were trying to scare the bejesus out of me, which you did, by the way.”

Orlando gasped loudly and pointed to Dom, “You’re the ghost!”

“Just like you were before,” Dom stated evenly, folding the sheet across his arm and handing it to Billy, who grinned. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a teddy bear to collect before I go out to the car for bed.”

And with that, he strutted from the room, his head held high. He left Orlando looking remarkably confused and the other three looking very impressed.

“HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” Dom shouted from downstairs, and then closed the front door with a loud bang.

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